Review
by Collectors
music
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Queen played thirteen shows in Japan in 1979 and with the surfacing
last year of this tape for the April 29th show in Nagoya, there are
documents now for each of them. Wardour are the first to
press this missing puzzle piece on Mr. Fahrenheit.
The tape is merely fair but listenable. It has a flat
quality to it, lacking any significant dynamics, but exists as a
good record of the event. It is complete except for small cuts at 7:52
in “Now I’m Here,” 10:00 in “Brighton Rock,” 1:41 in
“Keep Yourself Alive,” and the last half of “God Save The
Queen” is cut out. Freddie Mercury’s voice suffered from
the long tour and was weak in these dates. The nadir came
on the April 25th show in Tokyo. After taking two days off, he
returns in this show with more strength, but he still conserves
his voice by not hitting the high notes and voiding the vocal
gymnastics.
The beginning of the Jazz shows is a bit
strange with the slow arrangement of “We Will Rock You” segueing
into the fast arrangement followed in turn by “Let Me Entertain
You” from the new album. It is almost as if there are three
openers. “If You Can’t Beat Them,” which alternated with
“Fat Bottom Girls” in the set list, makes a return on this
night. Freddie narrates the lyrics to “Death On Two
Legs,” the opening song in the medley. One of the
virtues of tapes from this tour is to hear the brilliant “Bicycle
Race” in the live setting. It was only played in the Jazz
and Killers tours and only in medley. It is amazing
how Mercury could fit all of the highlights of the complex song into
a ninety second clip. The middle section of “Get Down,
Make Love” has bird chirps thrown in for good measure over the
orgasmic moans.
“Teo Torriatte” is played at all of the Japan
shows and is played a bit earlier in the set than on other nights.
The audience sing along in their native tongue to offer a touching
moment. “Dreamers Ball” starts off the three song acoustic
set. “I used to be a baby / I used to be a proud and joy…I
sure was” Freddie adlibs. After “Love Of My Life,”
Brian May mentions that Freddie is “skulking in the
background.” ”‘39″ is the final acoustic song
and Freddie says, “that finishes the so-called acoustic set.
We’re gonna do something a bit heavier - with this dreadful voice.
This is from an album called News Of The World, and the
song is called It’s Late.”
“Brighton Rock” is thirteen minutes and
includes spooky shouts at the beginning. The tape has a
hard time picking up the echo bouncing around the arena, but
Taylor’s tympani solo is very well recorded and sound massive.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is the final song of the night and “Sheer
Heart Attack” sounds like a testosterone driven attempt to assert
their dominance. The site of Freddie on the shoulders of
Superman at the beginning of “We Will Rock You” (making its
third appearance in the set) sends the audience into a shout, and
they sing along to “We Are The Champions.” The latter
songs on the tape, especially the encores, sound a bit more distant
the rest. Perhaps the taper moved? Mr. Fahrenheit
is packaged in a double slimline jewel case with several photos from
the tour on the artwork. It joins Dreamers Ball,
Pride & Joy and Ultimate Dreamer (all on
Wardour) as great silver pressed titles from Queen’s
longest tour of Japan.
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